Urban Wildlife in Newport News - Jonas Miller

Over the course of my time at CNU I've spent a lot of time walking around the wild places within our city. Mariners' Museum Park is certainly the most accessible, but I can't recommend places like Newport News Park or Harwood Mills Reservoir enough. The scenery can be nothing short of breathtaking, not to mention the wildlife present in their borders. I've always been interested in reptiles, so naturally that's what I tend to look for the most. I've probably seen over 100 different snakes by this point, including some really cool ones such as the rough green snake and eastern kingsnake. It's awesome to see these animals in habitat, however they are reasonably expected to be present in these areas. The unexpected kingsnake is the individual I found over the summer within Mariners' Museum Park. Not only did Dr. Meyer and Dr. Lattanzio have no memory of finding that species in the park, but the park records themselves did not mention that specific species. 

The question had to be asked: how did that animal, which is not very well suited for urban travel, get to Mariners' Museum in the heart of Newport News? We have proof of populations on the boundary of the city, so the expectation is that it came from one of those populations. I started to browse google earth in hopes of finding some kind of route the snake might have taken. Eventually I came to a conclusion: the snake must have either come from a) an extremely subtle inner-city population that has previously managed to avoid all detection or b) the slim, forested edge of the rail line that traces I-64 into Newport News and brushes the edges of the large parks on the city's boundaries. Either way, that snake or its ancestors had to have traveled along the edge of a railroad, a feature that is certainly not snake-friendly. 

The story of the kingsnake in Newport News is not unique. There are countless animals in this city that beat the odds in their attempt to survive. Many people express sadness when they see a flock of geese feeding under a powerline cut or a mother-daughter pair of deer crossing the road. After all, we don't think these animals are where "they are supposed to be." While not an invalid perspective, I think those of us are looking at it wrong. We have this way of looking at habitats and their inhabitants as 'natural or unnatural,' when such definitions simply not exist to animals. An animal's perspective, albeit impossible to truly know, is probably just 'habitable or uninhabitable'. That special kingsnake was presented with a series of habitat features many of us would assume to be uninhabitable. It probably crossed four lane highways, slithered through storm drains, avoided a plethora of blood-hungry cats and dogs, all for the sake of finding new habitat. It defied the odds, succeeding where many other members of its species failed. With any luck a second individual will follow suite, creating a true population of an animal in a place they haven't been in many, many years. The ability of an animal to make its home amidst human destruction should be inspiring, not disappointing. If anything this snake's story and many others like it serve to demonstrate a simple truth: animals are fighting to survive in this alien environment and the threshold for "bare minimum acceptable habitat" is well within reach. Each of us absolutely can make a difference and the world around us is begging for our help.

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